Bill Clinton Stumps for Tom Barrett in Wisconsin

Greg Sargent says Bill Clinton “hit a home run” this afternoon when he appeared with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett at a rally earlier this afternoon. Sargent:

Bill Clinton, in his speech in Wisconsin…framed the recall election as a stark choice between unity and division, between cooperation and conflict, and between shared prosperity and right wing winner-take-all economics. Democrats on the ground in the state are very satisfied with Clinton’s speech, and think he hit the right note to amplify their closing message

Clinton barely mentioned Barrett’s opponent Governor Scott Walker.

But the most important part of Bill’s speech was the call for voters to come out to the polls on Tuesday, in order to rebuke the national conservative movement’s huge financial investment in this race, and to make a larger statement about the type of leadership they want for the state and the country in the future:

If you believe in an economy of shared prosperity when times are good, and shared sacrifice when they’re not, then you don’t want to break the unions. You want them at the negotiating table. And you trust them to know that arithmetic rules. Show up for Tom Barrett on Tuesday! If you want Wisconsin once again to be seen by all of America as a place of diversity, of difference of opinion, of vigorous debate, where in the end people’s objectives are to come to an agreement that will take us all forward together, you have to show up for Tom Barrett on Tuesday!…

I can just hear it now, on Wednesday. All those people that poured all this money into Wisconsin, if you don’t show up and vote, will say, `see, we got them now. We’re finally going to break every union in America. We’re gonna break every government in America. We’re gonna stop worrying about the middle class. We don’t give a riff whether poor people get to work their way into it. We got our way now. We got it all. Divide and conquer works.’

You tell them no. You tell them, Wisconsin has never been about that, never will be about that — by electing Tom Barrett governor!

The recall election will be held on Tuesday, June 5. How it turns out will be extremely important for the entire country. If Walker wins, the Republican will likely double down in their wars on unions, voting rights, and women’s health.

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23 Comments on “Bill Clinton Stumps for Tom Barrett in Wisconsin”

If this was ever an election just about Wisconsin, it is far more than that now. With more than $30 million raised from conservative donors, many of them from other states, and visits from a who’s who of high-profile Republican governors (Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, Bob McDonnell), Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign to survive a recall vote has the feel, the money and the stakes of a national race.

And in many ways it is. The outcome of the election on Tuesday will not just decide the state’s leanings on matters of budget, taxes and policy, as well as the ultimate trajectory of Mr. Walker’s fast-rising political prospects. It will also send a message about a larger fight over labor across the country, and about whether voters are likely to reject those who cut collective bargaining rights, as Governor Walker did here last year for most of the state’s public workers, setting off this battle in the first place.

Broadly, the results will be held up as an omen for the presidential race in the fall, specifically for President Obama’s chances of capturing this Midwestern battleground — one that he easily won in 2008 but that Republicans nearly swept in the midterm elections of 2010.

Oh I know BB, makes me wonder if this part of Clinton’s speech may be a foreshadowing:

I can just hear it now, on Wednesday. All those people that poured all this money into Wisconsin, if you don’t show up and vote, will say, `see, we got them now. We’re finally going to break every union in America. We’re gonna break every government in America. We’re gonna stop worrying about the middle class. We don’t give a riff whether poor people get to work their way into it. We got our way now. We got it all. Divide and conquer works.’

Dozens of previously dismissed radio signals were actually credible transmissions from Amelia Earhart, according to a new study of the alleged post-loss signals from Earhart’s plane. The transmissions started riding the air waves just hours after Earhart sent her last in-flight message.

The study, presented on Friday at a three day conference by researchers of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), sheds new light on what may have happened to the legendary aviator 75 years ago. The researchers plan to start a high-tech underwater search for pieces of her aircraft next July.

“Amelia Earhart did not simply vanish on July 2, 1937. Radio distress calls believed to have been sent from the missing plane dominated the headlines and drove much of the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy search,” Ric Gillespie, executive director of TIGHAR, told Discovery News.

While Bill Clinton was no longer on my “like” list by 2004, I remember watching the Dem presidential candidates’ speeches at the Tom Harkin event on C-Span. I actually stood up, in front of my TV, and applauded Clinton’s speech. Had he been running then, I would have voted for him. That man can charm, inspire & motivate like no one I’ve ever seen.

I think this recall vote can not only influence the November elections, but also send a clear message to the Republican governors & legislatures who have followed Walker’s lead across the country. I hope Wisconsinites will soundly defeat Walker & wake up the rest of America with their votes. This story (http://www.npr.org/2012/06/01/154121911/recall-election-polarizes-wisconsin-voters) from NPR’s Morning Edition was disturbing. Apparently the animosity between the 2 sides has reached epic proportions. For me at least, how anyone could support Walker is truly baffling. Pond scum has more positive qualities than does Walker.

Bill Clinton managed quite a bit of actual governing even though both houses of Congress were in the hands of vicious opposition. And the man can campaign like nobody’s business. Our last actual human President. And he still shows it now by trying to help Barrett when the DNC said something about having to wash its hair.

When I lived in suburban Milwaukee, the John Birch group was there. It looks like their dogged advocacy scored a hit with Walker. Now we shall see how well they do after being in power for a while. Turn out in Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Eau Clair, Wausu and Green Bay will tell the story.

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